Bringing more creativity and ideas to work with Rosebud Magazine.

What happens when you bring more creativity to the workplace? We’re in the process of finding out. We believe the answer is: very good things.

We’ve begun having discussions with folks whose careers are all about creativity, trying to learn from them how we can bring more creativity and ideas into our jobs as advertisers and communicators.

On Wednesday we met with Rod Clark, the editor and publisher of Rosebud Magazine. Rod’s job is to sift through piles of fiction submissions to create a thrice-annual offering of short stories and poetry from little known authors to Norman Mailer, John Updike, and Ray Bradbury. Rosebud is one of the top fiction magazines in the country.

Here are some of Rod’s thoughts on creativity and ideas.

Seesaws are creatively powerful. There is power in opposites and contrasts. Contrast is energy.

Shut up and listen to the product. Rod doesn’t choose stories that appeal to him, but appeal to the magazine. After 16 years of Rosebud, the magazine knows what it wants and needs. So get out of your own way, and make choices based on what’s right for the product.

A great idea is: bigger than you; smarter than you; has fact and feeling; it glows; it shows that maybe you haven’t invented something, but you’ve discovered something.

A couple of extra dandy quotes:

“By the time you figure out what people want, they want something else.”

“Young people often want to be writers more than they want to write.”

Thanks Rod, for a great discussion. And stay tuned for more creativity at work.